Friday 18 December 2015

Nouns Sense

"Ain't Got No, I Got Life," as performed by Nina Simone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUcXI2BIUOQ
So many things not to have: a home, shoes, money, class, friends, schooling, words, a job, a place to live, a mother, a father, children, sisters, brothers, pay, a church, a god, love, wine, cigarettes, clothes, a country, a faith . . . Talk about poverty! Talk about having absolutely nothing!

Then, so many other things to have: hair, brains, eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, a smile, a neck, boobies (she said it, not me), a soul, a back, one's self, fingers, toes, a liver, life (a life, really), headaches, toothaches, bad times, one's sex (her piano hits it there). Talk about wealth! Talk about having so many just-as-real things, too!

Nina Simone is all nouns in this live number, all substance: a singer, a woman (in this video, an extremely beautiful one), a piano player, an explainer, a sad soul and a happy one, a steady occupant of time and space -- just listen to how she leads her band for these four entrancing minutes. You wish she were still alive so that you could go somewhere to listen to her, and maybe, after the show, to seek her out and ask her for advice about something that might be bothering you.